All three of us on Kotaku Splitscreen have begun to play Death Stranding, but only one of us did so with a newborn baby in the mix. Jason explained to me and Kirk this week that itâs just not cool to put your baby down for a nap and then get prompted to rock your PS4 controller back and forth while it emits crying noises.
First, we talked about the news from BlizzCon last weekend, as well as the other games weâre playing, such as Luigiâs Mansion 3 and Disco Elysium. After a break, we dove deep into Death Stranding (25:40), which Kirk and I have played enough to realize we enjoy. We close out with off-topic discussion (58:09) about Gardner Minshew, Jia Tolentinoâs book Trick Mirror, the Jordan Peele movie Us, and Kirkâs music pick.
Get the MP3 here, or read an excerpt below.
Jason: Death Stranding, I do not love. But Iâm glad it exists, because Iâm glad that a big, giant, multi-million dollar production is able to be so weird and experimental and do so many strange things. Iâm glad that Hideo Kojima is making games, and Iâm glad that Sony is funding weird artistic projects. That said, I played the first two hours of Death Stranding, and they can accurately be described as a delivery simulator slash cutscene viewer. I found myself pretty bored. I found myself actively frustrated with the fact that all youâre doing is walking around and trying not to fall over and damage the packages that are on your back. I was intrigued by the story, but not intrigued enough to want to keep watching. I found itâwhatâs the best way to describe Kojimaâs style of writing, other than blatant and in-your-face and blunt? All the subtlety of a hammer, is the best way to put it.
I wanted to keep playing it, both because I wanted to keep giving it a chance and I wanted to talk about it with you guys on the podcast. I was texting with some other reviewers; [Giant Bombâs] Dan Ryckert was like, âI canât believe Kojima made a boring game. I hate this fucking thing.â But I was texting with some other people who were like, âOh, it gets good after a few more hours, after ten hours.â Thatâs what people would say. Which already is a red flag for me.
So anyway, at one point, I picked it up and gave it another chance. Those of you listening to the show probably know that I just had a new baby. She is now six weeks old. This was about the three-week mark; I had just put her down to sleep. I was like, okay, great, sheâs sleeping, Iâm going to play some of Death Stranding, give it another chance. And as part of the plot for Death Stranding, you get a baby who attaches to you. And it turns out that once you get this baby, called a BB, if you fall over while walkingâwhich is very commonâthe baby starts crying.
Maddy: [laughs] Is it [common], though?
Kirk: Hang onâreally quick, before you continueâI have never fallen down in this game. Ever. So, it is not very common. Maybe youâre just bad. But anyways.
Jason: I guess Iâm just bad.
Maddy: We can give you some tips in a second.
Jason: Did you never have to soothe the baby?
Kirk: I have soothed the baby once, yes.
Maddy: I have soothed the baby. Usually if ghosts are involvedâtheyâre called BTs in this gameâbut there are other circumstances…
Kirk: I want you to finish your thought. Maddy and I have played significantly more and weâll share our thoughts in a moment. Continue!
Jason: So at this point, all Iâve done is walked, tried to place a ladder but found the interface really finicky and so I didnât know where I could place it. I wasnât really super clear on that. Walked to a bunch of different places. Fell over. The baby started crying. My PS4 controller started crying, and I just got this jolt of, âOh my god, I cannot play a game right now where a baby is crying and I have to soothe the baby. This is my life. I cannot play a game in which I have to do this.â
Maddy: [laughs] I get that.
Jason: As a way of therapy for myself, I just immediately turned it off, switched to Bloodborne, and went and killed Vicar Amelia in my New Game Plus.
Maddy: Just to feel powerful for a second, have some control over your life.
Jason: Just to escape from it!
Kirk: Itâs funny, because in Bloodborne thereâs that whole part where the baby is crying.
Jason: But itâs not the baby crying that gets to me. Itâs the fact that I, in a game, would have to soothe a baby.
Maddy: And you do. That is a part of it, some of the time.
Jason: And the fact that, at this point in my life, my video game time has gotten a lot more limited for obvious reasons, and I just donât have the time or tolerance or patience for a game where people are like, âOh yeah, it gets really good 10 hours in, or 15 hours in.â Especially when itâs not portable. If it were on Switch, I could maybe do it.
Maddy: Iâm not even sure of the idea that it gets good 10 hours in. I get why thatâs how youâre interpreting the way that people have been describing the game, but I also think that the game is making it pretty clear to you what itâs going to be, even within the first two hours, in ways that Kirk and I can explain. But it is a game that is frustrating, and thatâs part of it, and I know itâs a kind of game that youâve played, Jason. Because you now enjoy Bloodborne a lot, and that is a game that is frustrating for a while until you get the hang of it and figure out how it works. This game is very much, I would say, another one of those kinds of games. Itâs different in terms of what youâre doing and what youâre figuring out, but itâs still a game where you have to spend some time in its systems, figuring out how to not fall down, figuring out how to traverse the landscape.
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